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Institute For Canine Studies September 13, 2010

It’s been some time since our last update. We apologize for taking so long in getting back to you. However, we can assure you we have not been sitting on our hands, and in fact today are very pleased to finally be able to share with you some really exciting good news!

As many of you know, we have been working with the City of Marina for the past many months to negotiate a Ground Lease for the proposed ICS Campus with terms that would be fair and equitable for both the city of Marina and ICS. This has been an extremely difficult task, since no project like this has ever been done anywhere before, much less on a former army base which added just another layer of complication.

However, we have a great ICS team and have developed a good relationship with the City representatives as we worked through innumerable challenges together. But like a good dog, we don’t give up easily.

After many ups and downs and countless meetings and draft documents, today we can finally report that we have a draft Lease that we believe meets the needs of both the city and ICS!

The draft Lease specifies a base term of 50 years with two 10 year options for renewal. A possible 70 year Ground Lease.

Our last meeting with the city was on September 3rd when the final items were worked out. Attorneys for both the city and ICS worked over the Labor Day weekend to complete the final draft in time for the council’s closed session on Wednesday, September 8th. At that session, the City Council agreed to schedule the draft Lease for a full public hearing!

That hearing is now tentatively scheduled for the October 5th regular City Council meeting.

If the Council votes to approve the Lease, the more than three years of work to secure a site for our ICS campus will have finally come to fruition, and we can begin the next, even more exciting steps: planning, funding and building the actual project itself.

If you want to help ICS to become a reality, here are some practical suggestions:

Tentatively pencil in Tuesday October 5th between 6:30 & 10PM to attend the City Council hearing. We’ll let you know if the date changes.

Drop us a note to let us know if you’re able to be at the meeting so we can plan accordingly.

Stay tuned for updates. As we have learned through this process, things change.

Plan to write supporting letters and email to the Council members and local news outlets as the hearing date approaches. (We’ll offer some additional ideas about this closer to the final hearing date.)

Spread the word about ICS. Send people to the website, http://www.CanineStudies.org for more information, and ask them to sign up for updates.

As the City Council formally considers making this commitment, we will definitely want to hear from you and everyone who feels strongly about the many benefits the city will realize as a result of bringing ICS to the city of Marina.

A strong showing of community support when we come to the hearing will be very important. The individual council members need to know the community is behind them in their support of the ICS campus. If you have ideas about other ways to help, please let us know.